The suit and lightning cause an unusual scenario for Bill and Ralph. Meanwhile, Pam faces a dangerous scenario herself when she's involved in a drug ring case.

Notes: Rating T, When Bill and Ralph's names are in quotations, it is the way that others view them. Without quotes, they are speaking as their normal characters. Sardonyx and Chrysoprase are actually names of gemstones. Set between "Vanity, Says the Preacher," and "Greatest American Heroine" Dedicated to HD and stanford9, who helped me with the fine details, errors in the story.

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It was one of those days you wanted to just stay at home and turn off the rest of the world, Ralph thought as he woke up that Saturday. Outside, it was raining, and he could hear the branches scratch the back window as the winds picked up. Although it was 8:45 a.m., it looked like it was closer to 7.

Ralph turned over onto his back and started to shade his eyes, only to hear the telephone ring. "Great, who's bothering me at this time of the morning on a Saturday," Ralph thought out loud. "Don't these people know that Saturdays are the days that teachers crave the most besides summer?" He got up and proceeded to pick up the phone.

"Hello?" Ralph asked, yawning afterward.

"Ralph, you all right," said the voice on the other line.

"Bill, what are you doing calling me at this time in the morning on a Saturday," Ralph groaned. "You know what I said would happen if you called me out for no reason today. I'm taking Pam out for a romantic evening for her birthday, and since I hope it'll be a long night, I thought I'd get some beauty sleep. I don't want to fall asleep in my spaghetti at dinner."

"Well, I have a great scenario for the jammies that you need to try. You can get some while we head out to the desert," said Bill in a cheery voice. "I'm about to your house now, so go get cleaned up and put on the jammies and I'll see you in about 10-15 minutes."

"But. …" Ralph started but realized Bill had hung up the phone. He put the receiver back on its hook. "Did I agree, no. Well, since he insists we go out on a scenario of sorts in this weather, I'd better find some sort of trade off to make it worth my while. Maybe he'll buy lunch." He went to the bathroom and started getting ready.

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Pam was spending that particular Saturday at the law office. She was putting the finishing touches on her court case and was scheduled to speak with her client over lunch. They originally were going to meet in the law office, but after the witness had a panic attack just entering the building, wanted to make him as comfortable as possible. But after being assured that there were going to be undercover police officers and federal agents there, they agreed to meet them there.

The case was one of the biggest ones her firm had taken, and they felt confident that Pam would help bring the drug ring leader to justice.

Michael Sardonyx the head of the drug ring, was originally a pharmacist and later went on to get a medical degree. Unfortunately, after losing a malpractice case, which was his own fault, he decided to turn to a life of crime.

He created a new designer drug, nicknamed sapphire comets. The drug was so addictive and powerful, that if it didn't addict them people could slip into a coma and die from just a small taste. The police were able to catch him only because his last, though inadvertent, victim survived his trip and wanted to put Sardonyx in prison for life.

Pam looked over the files one more time and heard the phone ring. She picked it up. "Hello, Pam? Happy birthday honey," said Ralph.

"Hi hun, how are you feeling," said Pam. "Did you get a good night's sleep?"

"Not really. It was raining cats and dogs this morning, and Bill just called wanting to work out some sort of new scenario with the suit," said Ralph. "He hung up before I could say no, so I figured I'd better get up and get ready."

"Does he know that you and I are going to have a romantic evening for my birthday," asked Pam with a slightly sultry voice. She knew that would always get him and was pleasantly surprised with Ralph's chuckle.

"Yeah, I told him, and if he tries to do more than a typical suit scenario, I'll pick him up and fly him to Siberia," Ralph said with mock menace. After hearing Pam gasp, he chuckled and said, "Just kidding honey, but I'll remind him if it takes too long. After all, I planned on taking you to your favorite restaurant. Anyway, looks like he's here, so I'd better go. Talk to you later, love you," said Ralph.

"Love you to, be careful. 'Bye," said Pam as she hung up the phone. Looking at her watch, she realized she had about 15 minutes before she was to talk to her fellow junior partners about the case. She gathered her papers together and puts them into her briefcase, and heads toward the boardroom.

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As they traveled toward the desert, Ralph was listening to Bill's idea for one potential suit power. Though Bill said Ralph could sleep, he had done nothing except keep Ralph awake go over the same scenario again. This new scenario was spurred from a recent success Ralph had with the suit. Ever since Ralph was able to fine tune the pyrokenesis power and actually start fires in front of him instead of behind him, Bill was interested to see if Ralph could create electrical bolts using the suit.

Ralph, however, wasn't too keen on trying something that nearly got him killed once before, when the slime monster charged him with electricity and he turned into a electromagnet. He had heard Bill go over the details of the "research" he did for this when he decided enough was enough.

"Bill, please stop talking about this new scenario and let me at least get some sleep," said Ralph groused. "I had a very late night last night to begin with, and you waking me up early is not helping my mood. I'm bushed."

"Come on kid, why'd you stay up so late? Have a long night playing Risk with the Counselor again?" said Bill.

"You could say that," said Ralph almost to himself. Bill didn't miss the grumble in the other's voice.

"Sure you're OK pal? I mean, you didn't decide to take a header into a billboard again," Bill chuckled.

"No Bill, I didn't, all right? Haven't since my first flight. I'm just tired," the other growled.

"Gee, kid didn't mean any harm, it was just a joke," said Bill.

"Joke, Bill, the only thing right now I consider a joke is being out in the middle of the desert after a thunderstorm to try another suit power.

I'd much rather be sleeping."

"Come on kid, I said you could sleep all the way to the desert," said Bill.

"Yeah, and what have I done? I've listened to your research for this new idea. You know, you don't know what it's like to have to wear the jammies all the time and have to try your brilliant experiments. Most of the time, your studies and ideas go the way of the dodo bird."

"Well, I mean, they work on paper. …" Bill stammered.

"Yeah maybe so, but I'm the Guinea pig, and a lot of times I feel more like a crash test dummy. I mean, I just wish that you would see my side of the suit scenario too. Sorry, Bill, but right now, I'd much rather be at home in my nice warm bed instead of the dry and windy desert."

Bill was quiet as he listened to Ralph complain. He was right, Bill thought, I don't know, seems I won't either since the suit only works on him. He looked at the horizon and found out he was at the location he scouted out. It was an area that no planes flew in, so he knew no one would accidentally run into Ralph when they practiced flying again.

Bill stopped the car and both he and Ralph got out of the car. Ralph stripped down to the suit as Bill proceeded to go through the steps again. "OK, Ralph, what I found out was that since static electricity was generated by friction, you could maybe run across the rough desert and let the suit store up the electricity. Now, while you're running, concentrate on the suit collecting the energy. It seemed to work with the pyro technique so my guess is that it'll work with electricity."

Ralph nodded, though inwardly he was dreading the possibility of being a walking Van de Graff generator. "All right, Bill, I'll start running, but I don't think it'll work. Just in case, be sure you have something I can shock when I get back. If by some miracle this idea of yours works, I don't want to try it out on you. Don't know what'd it do to you," he said.

Bill smiled with a slight smirk on his face. "Oh, I'll be fine, and besides, couldn't be worse than when you drop me when you crash flying," he said.

Ralph was about to protest, but realized he didn't know how Bill felt about being carried in flight, and though he always wondered what it felt like, he didn't speak. Instead he turned to face the open desert and began to run. As he did, he concentrated on storing electricity. It seemed to be working, as he felt as though he was becoming electrified, and the hair on his arms seemed to stand up.

As he was running, he tripped on a stray rock and took flight, screaming as he started to sail upward. "No kid, come down from there," Bill hollered into the communicator, though Ralph probably wasn't listening to him.

Ralph continued to flying haphazardly into the skies, and felt as though the skies seemed to be electrified on their own. No sooner did he reach the sky he felt as though he was hit by a bolt of lightning. He lost what little balance he had and tumbled to the ground.

Bill continued watching Ralph in his impromptu flight into the skies when he saw the sudden bolt out of the blue. He watched in horror as Ralph was hit by it and fell from the skies to the ground. "Ralph," Bill shouted and got into his car, driving to where Ralph fell. He was praying that Ralph hadn't hit his head again, or worse. He had enough fun trying to lie to the doctors when Ralph crashed into the train that one time.

When he arrived at the scene, Ralph was sitting up and shaking the sand out of his hair. Ralph seemed dazed, but otherwise all right.

"Ralph, kid, you OK?" Bill asked. "Looks like you took a pretty nasty knock from the lightning bolt."

"Yeah, Bill, but what was that? I mean there are few clouds in the sky," he said.

"I know, that was too weird, I thought you had blown up," said Bill putting a hand on Ralph's shoulder, "And when you fell from the sky, I thought you might have been killed."

"Well, I'm still here, partner, just wish sometimes you knew exactly how I feel wearing the suit," said Ralph with a soft smile, reaching for Bill's shoulder and started to get up. "And I'm all right, but. …"

As Ralph grabbed Bill's shoulder to help each other up, there was a weird grayish purple glow that enveloped both of them. They looked at each other in confusion just before they felt a powerful surge of energy go through both of them. Ralph and Bill barely heard a roaring sound in their ears before they each fell backwards to the ground, unconscious.